Microsoft, Cargo Community Network Partner On Blockchain System For Air Cargo Industry

Singapore-based logistics company Cargo Community Network (CCN) and tech giant Microsoft have launched a blockchain air cargo billing, costing and reconciliation system.

Launched after a two-month proof-of-concept (POC) involving airline partners and freight forwarders, the system is designed to transform air cargo billing processes, minimizze billing discrepancies, accelerate billing reconciliation, and provide near real-time revenue recognition to enhance efficiency for airlines, cargo agents and freight forwarders involved in the entire supply chain.

The system is utlizing Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain technology to deliver a single immutable source of information for air cargo shipment rates, shipment details and billing processes via blockchain, with real-time updates provided by stakeholders. According to CCN, the flexible design of the system allows them to add more capabilities, as well as onboard more partners.

“By using blockchain on Azure, stakeholders in the supply chain can now retrieve information from a single source in real-time, including shipment details from the flight manifest (FFM), freight status update (FSU) and airway bill (FWB) to facilitate downstream billing and costing processes,” CCN said. “Airlines and freight forwarders can also update their shipments and compute charges in real-time through the built-in smart contract feature for upfront reconciliation.”

Teow Boon Ling, CEO of CCN, said that the typical air cargo billing, costing and reconciliation process can involve many stakeholders along the entire supply chain, adding that these processes are also very manual, manpower-intensive and prone to error.

“By using blockchain on Microsoft Azure, not only does this shorten the billing cycle from up to three weeks to a matter of hours, it can also reduce discrepancies, while enabling greater accountability and visibility across the entire supply chain,” Ling said. “With our blockchain-based air cargo billing, costing and reconciliation system rolling out to our broader user community starting today, we believe that this will bring added value to all our airline and freight forwarding partners, and strengthen our position as the leading provider of innovative solutions for the air cargo industry.”

Kevin Wo, Managing Director at Microsoft Singapore, said that in the competitive air cargo industry where speed and efficiency are key differentiators, technology can play an important role to enable greater operational efficiency across the entire supply chain.

“By using a robust, blockchain on Azure hybrid cloud set-up with high availability, Cargo Community Network is well-positioned to help airlines and freight forwarders to be quicker and more efficient with their billing processes, which can translate into tangible value-add for the industry across the board,” Wo said.